In this Section

Career and Professional Development

Your legal career starts here.

The Office of Career and Professional Development is dedicated to individually supporting the employment efforts of each student and graduate of UST School of Law. Our goal is to help our students and alumni navigate the path to meaningful employment. The CPD office also maintains strong relationships with employers, both locally and nationally, and is dedicated to assisting employers in meeting all of their hiring needs.

CPD offers a variety of services designed to help students and alumni fulfill their professional goals:

Employment Workshop series for first year law students

The J.D. Compass Program

Thorough review of application materials

Individual counseling sessions with a dedicated career counselor

Mock interview sessions

Networking training and events

On- and off-campus interview programs

Access to our Resource Library

Programming on numerous topics related to your professional path and job search

Employment data

We want to give you the most accurate and transparent picture of recent graduate employment as we continue to grow the number of alumni who hold full-time, long-term jobs. Three years' worth of ABA and NALP employment summary reports can be found here.

First Year Students

In accordance with the standards and guidelines of the National Association for Law Placement (NALP), the Office of Career and Professional Development is not available to students for one-on-one appointments or for application review prior to October 15 their first academic year. Direct contact or communication between employers and first year students before December 1 is prohibited. These rules are intended to prevent diversions from academic work during the critical early months of law school.

Discrimination Complaint Procedures

Students may file a complaint alleging offensive or discriminatory behavior on the part of interviewers or employers. At the time of filing a complaint, a student may use one of the following informal procedures:

A complaint is placed in a confidential Career and Professional Development file and the employer is monitored for future complaints.

The CPD Director contacts the employer to discuss the the incident.

The CPD Director gives written notice to the employer of the complaint and requests a written response.

Alternatively, the student may file a formal complaint. Upon receipt of a formal complaint, an Advisory Committee will investigate the allegations and determine whether the employer engaged in discriminatory behavior or some other violation of our career placement policies. If the Advisory Committee concludes there was a violation of UST Law policy, it will take one or more of the following actions:

Publicize the complaint to the UST Law community

Send a letter of reprimand to the employer

Place the employer on a specified period of probation

Suspend the employer's use of career services and facilities for a specified period of time

Impose any other sanctions it deems appropriate

Confidentiality

A student's right to privacy will be preserved during the recruiting and reporting process. Information protected by federal, state or local law will not be disclosed without proper consent from the student. Students should be aware, however, that information might be shared within the CPD office to facilitate speedy service for that student. Information may also be shared with other UST Law offices if the CPD staff believes doing so will improve services to the student. Questions regarding this policy may be directed to the Director of Career & Prof. Development.

Employment Postings

All employment opportunities shared with the CPD office are made available to the entire student body. An employer's preferred qualifications will be listed in the posting as long as they do not conflict with equal employment opportunity guidelines set out in UST Law's non-discrimination policy.

When CPD posts a job posting in the Career Center, that act does not represent an endorsement of the employer by the University of St. Thomas, nor an endorsement of the views or values held by that employer. Prospective applicants are encouraged and expected to research independently the employers and opportunities listed.

Student Employment Reporting

In accordance with the Principles and Standards of NALP, students should notify CPD of their acceptance or rejection of employment offers at the earliest possible time.